The first sign of doom became visible to me around a decade ago when Hindi movie channels began to show South Indian films. Now Bollywood is struggling to find a tiny corner for itself on the channels.

How did the glorious, glamorous Bollywood come to such a pass?

Decadence. Sheer decadence. Having been eulogised, rather deified, by their blind devotee-audience, cinema lords tossed to the winds the very soul of cinema: creativity. Obviously if one has such gullible fans that can consume from cold drinks to tobacco to alcohol―ANYTHING― for his sake, why would he care for creativity? Ask Satyajit Ray, Gurudutt, Hitchcock, Nolan, Scorsese, Rajamouli what it costs to be creative. Why would Rohit Shetty explore new ideas when he can clone his Singhams and Golmaals every year, or Salman Khan who can play a super cop eternally, or Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgan who can play upon patriotic sentiments of people and befool them, or biopic maniacs who are mere parasites?

Salman is fighting against drug mafias in his films, but selling Rajshree in real life. Cinematic Akshay is ready to give up his life for public good, but doesn't have the guts to write a single tweet about real public issues. In "Bhuj", Ajay is not sure if patriotism will sell well, so he would spice it up with Nora Fatehi's item song. Such hypocrites!

How long could this hypocrisy last? It was bound to be doomed. And out of the creative vacuum that followed South Indian cinema emerged. Although the mass of it was no better than Bollywood, at least it was original in its own peculiar way. Over time it gained a pan-Indian appeal. Add to the global ripple caused by "Bahubali", "Jai Bheem", "RRR", "2.0", etc. Result: a regional cinema began to outshine the national cinema.

Large cracks have begun to appear on the magnificent palace of Bollywood, and they seem irreparable. In a decade or so, it will turn into ruins.